Evide, a Derry-based company that stores and analyzes information for roughly 140 charities, suffered a ransomware-related cyberattack in March 2023. The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed it had been contacted about the attack and opened an investigation, with cooperation from Ireland’s Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau. The breach became public on 17 April 2023, after One in Four was notified on 5 April.
At least four affected organizations worked with survivors of rape or sexual abuse. Maeve Lewis, chief executive of Dublin charity One in Four, said stolen information included phone numbers and email addresses, potentially affecting about 1,000 people who had engaged with the organization. She said letters and reports sent to child-protection services were not taken, and One in Four urged Evide to pursue legal action because the charity itself had not been directly attacked. Northern Ireland organization Orchardville said it could not initially determine whether its data was affected. Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner could investigate the affected charities; Minister of State Ossian Smyth cautioned on 17 April that the inquiry was at an early stage and that some circulating claims might be false.
